I was recently commissioned to study and make recommendation...

I was recently commissioned to study and make recommendations on strategies for food security in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region.

The core issue is stark: NENA faces a severe and persistent water deficit, which population growth will only exacerbate, widening the food demand-supply gap.

Precision irrigation and, critically, large-scale use of recycled wastewater can help.

However, the adoption of these vital, sustainable solutions is currently dependent on a single, volatile factor: the global price of food imports.

This raises a critical strategic question for NENA countries: Should governments implement policies now to accelerate water technology adoption, treating resilience as a national security asset, or continue to gamble on the stability and affordability of the global food market?